


Running Across Timelines

by Alpha087



Series: The Sentry of Time [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-25 13:41:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22497031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alpha087/pseuds/Alpha087
Summary: The Oncoming Storm. The Last Sentry of Gallifrey. The Doctor and the Ambassador were best friends throughout their childhood, right up until they graduated and the Ambassador's path diverged from the Doctor's.After the War, the Ambassador, who was off world at the time, ends up on Earth in London at the same time as the Slitheen attack. Faced with her former friend for the first time in years, the Ambassador sets out to do what she always does: keep the timelines intact.
Relationships: Ninth Doctor & Original Female Character, Ninth Doctor & Rose Tyler
Series: The Sentry of Time [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618546
Kudos: 3





	1. Prologue

The Ambassador cursed loudly as she crashed onto her hands and knees. She'd had no coordinates but ran anyway once the news had come through. Gallifrey falls. The Time Lords are no more. The War is over.

It had left her in a bad situation, when her backup and authority had suddenly vanished. Her diplomatic immunity meant nothing without her planet and people.

She stood slowly, placing her surroundings. Earth. London alley. She licked her finger and held it up. About 2005-ish, if she was right. She turned her attention back to her Vortex Manipulator, intent on leaving, when she she saw it start to smoke.

She tore it off her wrist and threw it away from her body. It sparked weakly then exploded. She sighed resignedly at it and walked away.

2005\. Nothing interesting ever happened in 2005. She was going to be _so_ bored here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the Ambassador. She is portrayed by Astrid Berges-Frisbey. She is on her eighth regeneration, and her theme is Arwen's Vigil by the Piano Guys. She has a vaguely French accent, dark brown hair that she wears pulled away from her face, and her outfit of choice hasn't been mentioned yet but she'll be wearing a gray leather jacket, white sleeveless top, gray skinny jeans and TARDIS blue Converse.


	2. Aliens of London

Jane Smith had been a godsend, Jackie Tyler mused. The woman had moved in next door not two days after her Rose went missing and Jackie had instantly liked her. She was a bit strange, not knowing some things that even children knew, but Jackie chalked that up to her being foreign, French or Spanish, or something.

They had tea twice a week and it was in the middle of this that Jackie's front door opened. She stopped in the middle of her sentence, locking eyes with Jane.

"Were you expecting anyone?" Jane asked softly. Jackie shook her head.

"I'm back!" Jackie froze, blood draining from her face. "I was with Shareen. She was all upset again. Are you in?" Jackie ran out of the living room, Jane behind her not a second later. They both skidded to a halt when they found Rose standing in the entry hall. "So, what's been going on? How've you been?" Rose looked at her mother in concern. "What? What's that face for? It's not the first time I've stayed out all night."

Jackie dropped her mug in shock, hands going to cover her mouth. "It's you."

"Of course it's me, Mum," Rose answered, confused.

"Oh my god, it's you," she whispered. "Oh my god." She surged forward and threw her arms around her daughter. Rose glanced at the brunette standing behind her mother. The woman smiled a little sadly and pointed towards the table. A stack of missing posters with Rose's face sat there.

"You've been gone for a year," Jane said quietly. At that moment, the door burst open and the Doctor ran in.

"It's not twelve hours, it's twelve months," he said. "You've been gone a whole year. I'm sorry."

****

"The hours I've sat here," Jackie ranted angrily, "the days and weeks and months, all on my own. I thought you were dead. And all you can say is you were traveling?" Jackie scoffed. "Traveling. What the hell does that mean, traveling?? That's no sort of answer!" Jackie turned to where the police officer sat next to Jane. "You ask her. She won't tell me. That's all she says. Traveling."

"That's what I was doing!" Rose tried. Jackie rolled her eyes.

"With your passport still in your drawer?" she said. "It's just one lie after another."

Rose winced. "I meant to phone," she excused halfheartedly. "I really did, I just... forgot."

Jackie gaped. "What, for a year? You forgot for a whole year? And I am left sitting here." Jackie turned to Jane. "I just don't believe her. Why won't she tell me where she's been?"

Jane shook her head helplessly. "I don't know, Jackie."

The Doctor spoke up then. "Actually, it's my fault," he said cheerfully. "I've sort of... employed Rose as my companion." Jackie, Jane, and the officer all stared at him. The officer was the first one to speak.

"When you say companion, is that a sexual relationship?"

"No!!" Rose and the Doctor both yelped.

"Then what is it?" Jackie demanded. "Because you, you waltz in here all charm and smiles, and the next thing I know, she vanishes off the face of the Earth! How old are you then? Forty? Forty five? What, did you find her on the Internet? Did you go online and pretend you're a doctor?"

"I am a doctor," he insisted. Jackie glared.

"Yeah?" She brought her hand back. "Then stitch this, mate!" She slapped him full force and the Doctor actually stumbled backwards.

Jane snickered from her seat on the couch.

****

Later, Rose found the Doctor on the roof. She walked over to him. "I can't tell her. I can't even begin." The Doctor hummed. "And I missed a year. How was it?"

"Middling." The Doctor replied. Rose laughed.

"You're so useless." She pushed him gently. He grinned at her before his smile fell a little.

"Well, if it's this much trouble, are you going to stay here now?" the Doctor asked. Rose hummed thoughtfully.

"I don't know," she finally said. "I can't do that to her again, though."

"Well, she's not coming with us."

Rose laughed. "No chance."

"I don't do families," the Doctor said, grinning.

Rose pointed at his face, laughing harder. "She slapped you!"

The Doctor shook his head ruefully. "Nine hundred years of time and space, and I've never been slapped by someone's mother."

"Your face," Rose giggled.

He rubbed at his cheek. "It hurt!"

"You're so gay," she teased. His words hit her and she turned to him. "When you say nine hundred years?"

He nodded. "That's my age."

"You're nine hundred years old," Rose repeated incredulously.

"Yeah."

Rose shook her head. "My mum was right. That is one hell of an age gap." She stood and walked a bit away from him. "Every conversation with you just goes mental. There's no one else I can talk to. I've seen all that stuff up there, the size of it, and I can't say a word. Aliens and spaceships and things, and I'm the only person on planet Earth who knows they exist."

"Well, not the only one," a voice quipped from behind them. They both spun to see Jackie's friend Jane standing against the wall. "I mean, I'm on Earth and I know about them."

"And who are you?" the Doctor asked.

"I go by Jane Smith here, but you'd know me better as the Ambassador," Jane said. The Doctor gaped. Rose scrunched her face in confusion.

"Hang on," she said, "like _the_ Doctor?" The Ambassador nodded. "I thought you said you were the last!" Rose turned to the Doctor. He winced.

"Thought I was," he muttered. "How did you survive, Ambassador?"

She opened her mouth to explain when a loud horn from behind them made them all turn. A spaceship headed towards them, trailing black smoke. They ducked as the ship sailed overhead and crashed into Big Ben, then landed in the Thames. They stood, watching as sirens began to wail towards the plume of smoke rising from the water.

Rose groaned. "Oh, that's just not fair."

*****

The trio stood in the middle of the street, staring at the massive traffic jam the army had caused.

"It's blocked off," the Doctor said. The Ambassador brought her hand up and smacked the back of his head.

"We can see that, thanks," she replied. "Dollophead." The Doctor looked at her, offended.

"OI!"

"We're miles from the centre," Rose pointed out, trying not to laugh at the two aliens. "The city must be grid locked. The whole of London must be closing down."

The Doctor turned away from the Ambassador and grinned widely. "I know. I can't believe I'm here to see this. This is fantastic!" Both girls stared at him incredulously.

"Did you know this was going to happen?" Rose demanded.

"Nope."

"Do you recognise the ship?"

"Nope."

"Do you know why it crashed?"

"Nope."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Oh, I'm so glad I've got you."

"I bet you are." The Ambassador shook her head at his words, pinching the bridge of her nose. "This is what I travel for, Rose. To see history happening right in front of us."

"Well, let's go and see it. Never mind the traffic, we've got the Tardis." The Doctor shook his head immediately.

"Better not," he said.

Rose frowned. "Why not?"

"It isn't safe," the Ambassador explained. "They already have one spaceship crashed in the middle of London. We don't want to give them another one."

"Yeah," Rose started to agree, "but his looks like a big blue box. No one's going to notice."

"You'd be surprised," the Doctor told her, ignoring the questioning glance from the Ambassador. "Emergency like this, there'll be all kinds of people watching. Trust me. The Tardis stays where it is."

"So history's happening and we're stuck here," Rose said flatly.

"Yes, we are."

"Bet your mum will have the news on," the Ambassador whispered to Rose. She nodded, then turned to the Doctor.

"We can always do what everybody else does," she suggested. "We can watch it on TV."

*****

The Ambassador sat on the arm of the Doctor's chair, watching the news. Rose looked at her. "So how long have you lived here?" she asked.

The Ambassador turned to face her. "I moved in about a year ago,"she told her. "Met Jackie the day after I moved in."

"Shush!" The Doctor hissed at them. The Ambassador smacked him in the arm and turned her attention to the news.

" _The army are sending divers into the wreck of the spaceship. No one knows what they're going to find._ " The Doctor flipped the station to an American one. " _The President will address the nation live from the White House, but the Secretary General has asked that people watch the skies_."

Jackie walked over with three mugs of tea. She handed two to Rose and the Ambassador and then her friend Ru Chan. "I've got no choice," she was saying to Ru as she sat down next to Rose. Ru gave Rose a look.

"You've broken your mother's heart," she stated. Jackie just glared at the Doctor.

"I'm not going to make him welcome," she told Ru. Ru nodded understandingly, still watching Rose.

"I cradled her like a child," she continued to Rose as if Jackie hadn't spoken.

The Doctor shushed then. "Oi, I'm trying to listen." The Ambassador shook her head at him and tuned out the gossiping women.

" _News is just coming in_ ," a reporter was saying. " _We can go to Tom at the Embankment_."

Tom was standing in front of the Thames. " _They've found a body. It's unconfirmed_."

The Ambassador and the Doctor exchanged looks.

****

The Ambassador sighed as she shut the door to her flat. Jackie's news watch party had morphed into a welcome home party for Rose, though by looks of it Rose didn't even know half the people there. She snorted, shaking her head as she walked towards her room.

The Doctor being alive was a shock. She hadn't felt him in her mind, but then after the... incident that caused them to drift apart, she hadn't really tried to feel his mind. It wasn't surprising to think that so many years of suppressing the feel of him in her head had backfired once they were the only two left.

The Ambassador opened a drawer on her nightstand and pulled up the false bottom. Inside was a black jewelry box. She stared at it for a moment before picking it up and opening it. She gently lifted out the bracelet inside and put it on. Then she grabbed her phone and her wallet and headed back towards Jackie's.

****

The Ambassador grumbled to herself as yet another person bumped into her in Jackie's living room. It was like the entire floor had crowded into the Tyler flat to welcome Rose home. She finally pushed her way through the crowd and dropped onto the arm of the Doctor's chair.

"I don't know how she knows so many people," she grumbled to him. "Nor how they all fit in here." He looked around.

"It is getting a bit crowded," he agreed. "I'm gonna go check out that alien. Would you like to come with me?" The Ambassador smiled in relief.

"Oh god yes." The two of them stood and made their way out. They were just out the door when Rose caught up to them.

"And where do you think you're going?"

The Doctor turned. "Nowhere," he lied. "It's just a bit human in there for me. History just happened and they're talking about where you can buy dodgy top-up cards for half price. I'm off on a wander, that's all."

Rose nodded slowly. "Right," she said, not sounding like she believed him. "There's a spaceship on the Thames and you two're just wandering."

"Nothing to do with me," the Doctor answered. "It's not an invasion. That was a genuine crash landing. Angle of descent, colour of smoke, everything. It's perfect."

Rose shrugged. "So?"

"So maybe this is first contact," the Ambassador said. "The day mankind officially comes into contact with an alien race. He's not interfering because you've got to handle this on your own."

"That's when the human race finally grows up," the Doctor agreed. He grinned. "Just this morning you were all tiny and small and made of clay. Now you can expand." His grin dropped. "You don't need me. Go and celebrate history."

"Spend some time with your mum," the Ambassador interjected. They turned to walk off again.

"Promise you won't disappear?" Rose called. The Doctor stopped, closing his eyes.

"Tell you what," he said, turning and smiling at her. He pulled a Yale key out of his pocket. "TARDIS key. It's about time you had one. See you later." Rose smiled down at the key, looking up to see the two aliens walk off. She grinned, closing her hand around the key and heading back inside.

****

Mickey Smith stepped out onto his balcony, checking his shoes. He looked up when he heard a very familiar voice. Sure enough, that Doctor man was walking to his ship followed by - Mickey squinted at the figure - Jane Smith, Jackie's neighbor.

He turned and ran for the door.

****

The Doctor led the Ambassador to the TARDIS. He unlocked the door and went inside to the console, leaning against it. "Well?" he asked. "What do you think?"

The Ambassador stood in the doorway, a look of awe on her face. "She's wonderful," she said, grinning. She ran up to the console, running her hands over it gently. The Doctor smiled, looking down at the controls and starting to flip switches to send them into flight. The TARDIS shook,

resisting. The Doctor hauled out a large hammer and banged on the console. The Ambassador laughed.

"You still can't fly properly, can you?" she teased. "Need a hammer to get anywhere." She reached over and flipped a switch, stabilizing the flight. He glanced over at her, taking note of the bracelet she wore.

He pointed at it. "You still have it, then." She looked away.

"I didn't take it off once until I got stranded here," she told him. "Then it was too painful to wear."

He watched her face. "I thought you would have gotten rid of it."

She finally met his eyes. "You were the one who pulled away from me." She shook her head. "I never wanted to stop being friends."

"You mur-" Whatever he was going to say was cut off by the TARDIS landing. "We're here."

He headed out the door, the Ambassador trailing behind him. They step out into a storage cupboard and the Doctor pulls out a sonic screwdriver and sonicked the lock of the cupboard. He pushed open the door and they stepped out into a room full of Red Berets.

The Berets stared at the two Time Lords in shock. It was silent for a minute before the soldiers all grabbed their guns. The Doctor threw his hands up as they all trained their guns on him. The Ambassador stood next to him, hands up and glaring at him.

"If we die here, I'm going to kill you," she hissed.

The Doctor didn't get a chance to respond when a scream echoed down the hall. He lowered his hands and started for the door. "Defense plan delta!" he yelled at the soldiers. "Come on, move, move!"

*****

The Ambassador and the Doctor found Toshiko Sato cowering by her desk.

"It's alive," she told them. The Doctor looked back at the soldiers following them.

"Spread out," he ordered. "Tell the perimeter it's a lockdown."

The Ambassador helped Sato up. "My god," she was saying as they headed into the mortuary. "It's still alive. I swear it was dead."

"Coma, shock, hibernation," the Ambassador brushed off. "It could be anything. What does it look like?" Metal clattered behind the filing cabinet and all three ducked down behind a table.

"It's still here," the Doctor said. He beckoned to a soldier outside the door to come in. The soldier entered and kneeled by Toshiko. The Doctor stood carefully and walked over to the filing cabinet. He swallowed his shock when he saw that the alien was a pig in a spacesuit.

"Hello," he said softly. The poor thing squealed and ran out on its hind legs. The Doctor spun to face the soldier.

"Don't shoot!"

The Ambassador stood, shock written all over her face. "Was that... was that a pig?" The Doctor nodded. The Ambassador opened her mouth to continue, but was cut off by a gunshot ringing out in the hall. The two Time Lords ran for the door.

"What did you do that for?" the Doctor demanded as the Ambassador fell to her knees at the pig's side. Shecradled its head in her arms. "It was scared! It was scared."

He joined her on the floor, just being there as the poor pig died.

*****

"Here's to the Martians!" Jackie cried, lifting her wine glass in a toast. Rose rolled her eyes as the guests all echoed the toast. She shook her head, then looked up as Mickey burst through the door, stopping and staring at Rose. The entire flat fell silent.

"I was going to come and see you," Rose said weakly.

Ru Chan shook her head. "Someone owes Mickey an apology."

Rose winced. "I'm sorry."

"Not you."

"Well, it's not my fault," Jackie sniffed, crossing her arms. "Be fair. What was I supposed to think?"

She turned with a huff and walked into the kitchen. Mickey followed her immediately, a cross look on his face. Rose sat in her chair a moment more, before sighing and following. As soon as she stepped into the kitchen, Mickey turned on her.

"You disappear, who do they turn to? Your boyfriend," he snapped. "Five times I was taken in for questioning. Five times. No evidence. Course, there couldn't be, could there?" He gestured angrily at Jackie. "And then I get her, your mother, whispering around the estate, pointing the finger. Stuff through my letterbox, and all 'cos of you."

Rose looked down. "I didn't think I'd be gone so long."

"And I waited for you, Rose," he replied. "Twelve months, waiting for you and the Doctor to come back."

"Hold on," Jackie interrupted. "You knew about the Doctor? Why didn't you tell me?"

Mickey started to answer, then noticed people trying to listen in. He stepped over and slammed the serving hatch shut in their faces, then closed the door. "Yeah, yeah," he scoffed. "Why not, Rose? Huh? How could I tell her where you went?"

"Tell me now," Jackie snapped. Rose shook her head, but Mickey just snorted.

"I might as well, 'cos you're stuck here. The Doctor's gone. Just now. That box thing just faded away," he told Rose, just a bit smug.

"What do you mean?" Rose asked him, confused.

"He's left you," Mickey gloated. "Took that Jane chick with him. Some boyfriend he turned out to be."

Rose turned and ran out of the flat.

*****

"I just assumed that's what aliens look like," Sato said once they were back in the mortuary, "but you're saying it's an ordinary pig from Earth."

"More like a mermaid," the Doctor said. "Victorian showmen used to draw the crowds by taking the skull of a cat, gluing it to a fish and calling it a mermaid. Now someone's taken a pig, opened up it's brain, stuck bits on, then they've strapped it in that ship and made it dive bomb."

"It must have been terrified," the Ambassador said, eyes dark. "They've taken this animal and turned it into a joke."

"So it's a fake, a pretend, like the mermaid," Sato said agreeably, not really paying attention to them. "But the technology augmenting its brain, it's like nothing on Earth. It's alien. Aliens are faking aliens." Sato didn't notice as they left. "But why would they do that?" she asked, turning to them. "Doctor? Ambassador?" She stepped out into the hall. "Doctor?"

They were gone.

*****

Rose stood, staring at where the TARDIS had been in shock. "He wouldn't just go, he promised me."

"Oh, he's dumped you, Rose," Mickey whooped. "Sailed off into space with Jane. How does it feel, huh? Now you are left behind with the rest of us Earthlings. Get used to it."

Rose shook her head. "He would have said."

"What're you two chimps going on about?" Jackie called, coming out. "What's going on? What's this Doctor done now?"

"Ho, ho, ho," Mickey cried. "He's vamoosed." Rose whipped around to face him.

"He's not, because he gave me this," she told him, showing him the key. "He's not my boyfriend, Mickey. He's better than that. He's much more important than-" She cut off as the key started to glow. She looked up as the TARDIS started to land. 

"I said so," she breathed, then turned to her mother. "Mum! Mum, go inside. Mum, don't stand there, just go inside. Just, Mum, go." She sighed as Jackie stood frozen. "Oh, blimey." She turned and went into the TARDIS as soon as it landed.

"How'd you do that, then?" Jackie asked Mickey. He didn't answer, just following Rose inside.

*****

"All right, so I lied," the Doctor said when he heard Rose come in. "We went and had a look. But the whole crash landing's a fake. I thought so. Just too perfect. I mean, hitting Big Ben. Come on, so I thought let's go and have a look-" Rose interrupted.

"My mum's here."

The Doctor turned and looked at Mickey and Jackie standing by the door. "Oh, that's just what I need," he complained, the Ambassador snickering from her place on the captain's seat. He pointed at Rose. "Don't you dare make this place domestic."

"You ruined my life, Doctor," Mickey snapped at him. "They thought she was dead. I was a murder suspect because of you."

"You see what I mean?" the Doctor asked his girls. "Domestic."

"I bet you don't even remember my name."

"Ricky."

"It's Mickey," he corrected.

"No, it's Ricky."

Mickey glared. "I think I know my own name."

"You think you know your own name?" the Doctor teased him. The Ambassador was full out laughing now, Rose watching the two men in amusement. "How stupid are you?"

Rose suddenly pushed past them. "Mum, don't!" she called as Jackie ran out of the TARDIS.She sighed and turned to the bickering men. She pointed at the Doctor. "Don't go anywhere." She pointed at Mickey. "Don't start a fight!" She pointed at the Ambassador. "Don't let them do either!" Rose came out of the TARDIS to see her mum running towards their flat. "Mum, it's not like that!" she shouted. "He's not... I'll be up in a minute! Hold on!" She ducked back inside, going back to the console. "That's a real spaceship."

"Yep," the Doctor agreed.

"So it's all a pack of lies?" Rose asked. "What is it, then? Are they invading?"

"Funny way to invade," Mickey pointed out, "putting the world on red alert."

"Good point!" the Doctor praised. "So, what're they up to?"

*****

Jackie sat on her bed, head spinning. That ship was impossible! And her Rose just walked about it like it was nothing! And Jane, her nice, normal neighbor, was sitting there like she belonged there! Jackie flopped down, hands on her forehead.

The news was still playing on her tv. " _Are there more ships to come? And what is their intention? The authorities are now asking if anyone knows anything. If any previous sighting has been made, then call this number. We need your help._ " Jackie looked at the number on the screen and bit her lip, wavering. Then she picked up the phone and dialed. She huffed as she got the busy tone twice before getting through.

"Yes, I've seen one," she blurted as soon as someone picked up. "I really have. An alien. And she's with him. My daughter, and my neighbor, they're with him. And she's not safe. Oh, my God. She's not safe." She paused to collect herself. "I've seen an alien," she continued, "and I know his name. He's called the Doctor. His ship, it's a box. A blue box. She called it a TARDIS." Jackie frowned at the phone when she was abruptly hung up on, then sighed and put it down.

The army knew now and they would keep Rose - and Jane - safe.

******

Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor was under the console fiddling with the wires. Mickey stood over him, watching.

"So, what're you doing down there?" he finally asked.

The Doctor took his screwdriver out his mouth. "Ricky."

Mickey sighed. "Mickey."

"Ricky," the Doctor ignored him. "If I was to tell you what I was doing to the controls of my frankly magnificent time ship, would you even begin to understand?"

"I suppose not."

The Doctor smiled. "Well, shut it, then." Mickey huffed and walked back over to Rose.

The Ambassador leaned over the Doctor. "You should be nicer to him," she scolded. "He's Rose's boyfriend. And anyway, does the TARDIS even need repairs, or is this just because you hit her console with a hammer?"

He didn't answer.

****

Rose looked over as Mickey walked over. "Some friend you've got," he said flatly.

Rose smiled apologetically. "He's winding you up. I am sorry."

"Okay."

"I am, though," Rose insisted.

Mickey sighed. "Every day, I looked," he told her. "On every street corner, wherever I went, looking for a blue box for a whole year."

Rose winced. "It's only been a few days for me. I don't know," she sighed, rubbing her face. "It's, it's hard to tell inside this thing but I swear it's just a few days since I left you."

"Not enough time to miss me, then?"

"I did miss you."

"I missed you," Mickey offered.

Rose didn't look at him. "So, er, in twelve months, have you been seeing anyone else?"

"No."

"Okay."

"Mainly because everyone thinks I murdered you," Mickey explained awkwardly.

"Right."

"So, now that you've come back, are you going to stay?" Mickey asked hopefully. He leaned in to kiss her, but Rose pulled away when the Doctor jumping up from under the console.

"Got it!" he cried. "Ha, ha! Patched in the radar, looped it back twelve hours so we can follow the flight of that spaceship."

The Ambassador smirked. "Oh, is that what you were doing?"

"Here we go," the Doctor said, ignoring her smirk. "Hold on. Come on." He smacked the side of the screen to make it focus and grinned when the ship trajectory came up.

"That's the spaceship on its way to Earth, see?" he pointed out to Rose and Mickey. "Except. Hold on. See?" Rose shook her head.

"The spaceship did a sling shot round the Earth before it landed," the Ambassador explained.

"What does that mean?"

"It means it came from Earth in the first place," the Doctor said, sounding vaguely excited. "It went up and came back down. Whoever those aliens are, they haven't just arrived, they've been here for a while. The question is, what have they been doing?"

*****

The Doctor flipped through channels on his scanner, looking for the right news station. Rose and the Ambassador stood on either side of him, watching.

"How many channels do you get?" Mickey asked, standing behind the trio.

"All the basic packages," the Doctor told him.

Mickey looked at the scanner in interest. "You get sports channels?"

"Yes, I get the football," the Doctor said, exasperated. He perked up when several uniformed people walked on screen. "Hold on, I know that lot."

"It is looking likely that the Government's bringing in alien specialists - those people who have devoted their lives to studying outer space."

"UNIT," the Doctor told the others. "United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Good people."

"How do you know them?" Rose asked.

"'Cos he's worked for them," Mickey answered. He gave the Doctor a smug look. "Oh yeah, don't think I sat on my backside for twelve months, Doctor. I read up on you." He looked at the girls. "You look deep enough on the Internet or in the history books, and there's his name, followed by a list of the dead."

"That's nice," the Doctor replied flatly. "Good boy, Ricky."

The Ambassador looked at the Doctor, not missing the flash of pain in his eyes. She swallowed and looked away for a minute. "You had a job?" she asked him, looking back with a teasing smile. "You, and a job?"

"If you know them," Rose pointed out, "why don't you go and help?"

The Doctor moved away from the scanner. "They wouldn't recognise me. I've changed a lot since the old days," he told her. The Ambassador wondered how many regenerations he'd gone through since she'd last seen him in his fourth incarnation. "Besides, the world's on a knife-edge. There's aliens out there and fake aliens. We want to keep this alien out of the mix. I'm going undercover," the Doctor headed for the TARDIS doors. "And er, I'd better keep the Tardis out of sight. Ricky, you've got a car. You can do some driving."

"Where to?" Mickey asked, following the girls to the door.

"The roads are clearing," the Doctor said, opening the doors. "Let's go and have a look at that spaceship."

The moment they stepped out of the TARDIS, a spotlight was on them and they were surrounded.

"Do not move!" the police yelled, pointing guns. "Step away from the box and raise your hands above your heads."

The Ambassador put her hands up as Mickey ran and hid. Jackie came running out of the flat.

"Rose!" she yelled as soldiers grabbed her. "Rose!"

"Raise your hands above your head," the police ordered again. "You are under arrest." The Doctor and Rose finally put their hands up.

"Take me to your leader," the Doctor said cheerfully.

The trio were forced into a car. Rose looked around, smiling at the two aliens. "This is a bit posh. If I knew it was going to be like this, being arrested, I would have done it years ago."

"We're not being arrested, we're being escorted," the Doctor corrected.

"And where are we being escorted to?" the Ambassador asked him.

"Where'd you think?" he answered. "Downing Street."

Rose gave a shocked look to the Ambassador. "You're kidding," she said, eyeing the Doctor.

"I'm not," he said, a smug grin on his face.

"10 Downing Street?"

"That's the one."

Rose grinned widely. "Oh, my God. I'm going to 10 Downing Street?" He nodded.

The Ambassador crossed her arms. "Why?"

"I hate to say it, but Mickey was right," the Doctor explained. "Over the years I've visited this planet a lot of times, and I've been, er, noticed." He glared playfully at the Ambassador as she snorted.

"Now they need you?" Rose asked, watching the interaction in amusement.

"Like it said on the news. They're gathering experts in alien knowledge. And who's the biggest expert of the lot?"

"Patrick Moore?" Rose guessed, winking at the Ambassador.

"Apart from him," the Doctor rolled his eyes.

Rose grinned, shoving him lightly. "Oh, don't you just love it."

"I'm telling you," the Doctor said as both girls giggled. "Lloyd George, he used to drink me under the table. Who's the Prime Minister now?"

"How should I know? I missed a year," Rose reminded him. The Ambassador thought for a moment.

"Let's see, 2006?" she said. "It's Tony Blair."

"How do you know that?" the Doctor asked. She gave him a look.

"Apart from it being literally my job to know every timeline?" she stated. "I've lived here Earth for the last year, stuck."

Rose looked between the two Time Lords as an awkward silence settled.

The car finally pulled up to 10 Downing Street and the trio got out to a horde of cameras. The Doctor started making faces at the cameras. 

"Oh, my God," Rose laughed. The Ambassador just rolled her eyes at his antics, walking past him into the building. Rose and the Doctor shared a grin before he took her hand and pulled her up the steps and into Downing Street.

*****

Three policemen stood in Jackie's flat, taking a statement from her. Jackie sat in her chair, wringing her hands, more worried about her daughter than giving them their statement. "So, she's all right then?" she asked. "She's not in any trouble?"

Commissioner Strickland smiled tightly. "Well, all I can say is, your daughter and her companion might be in a position to help the country. We'll need to know how she made contact with this man, if he is a man."

Strickland sat down, and his stomach made an unpleasant noise. Jackie scrunched her nose, then got up to get some tea.

"Oof," he groaned, then turned to his coworkers. "Right, off you go then. I need to talk with Mrs Tyler on my own, thank you."

The other two left the flat as Strickland smiled sinisterly.

*****

The Ambassador and Rose looked around the building in awe as they walked in and stopped by a door. A secretary stepped forward and called out to the room of people.

"Ladies and gentlemen, can we convene?" he asked. People started moving forward, and he held up an ID card as they passed. "Quick as we can, please. It's this way on the right, and can I remind you ID cards are to be worn at all times." He handed the card he was carrying to the Doctor, and looked askance at Rose and the Ambassador. "Here's your ID card. I'm sorry, your companions don't have clearance."

"I don't go anywhere without her," the Doctor said, pointing at Rose. "And I'm not leaving her behind either," he finished, pointing at the Ambassador.

The secretary shook his head. "You're the code nine, not them. I'm sorry, Doctor. It is the Doctor, isn't it? They'll have to stay outside."

"They're staying with me."

The secretary sighed, sounding exhausted. "Look, even I don't have clearance to go in there. I can't let her in and that's a fact."

Rose laid a hand on the Doctor's arm. "It's all right. You go."

A redheaded woman walked over. "Excuse me," she asked. "Are you the Doctor?"

"Sure," said man agreed easily. The secretary turned to the woman and the Doctor started to argue with Rose about leaving her outside.

"Not now." The Ambassador frowned as the secretary snapped at the woman. "We're busy. Can't you go home?"

"I just need a word in private," the woman insisted. The Ambassador glanced at her badge. Harriet Jones, she mused. The name sounded familiar.

"I suppose so," the Doctor conceded to Rose. He headed towards the conference room, calling back to both girls. "Don't get in any trouble."

"You haven't got clearance. Now leave it," the secretary told Harriet. He turned to Rose and the Ambassador, taking them by the arms and starting to lead them off. "I'm going to have to leave you with security."

Harriet stepped up behind them. "It's all right," she said. "I'll look after them. Let me be of some use." The secretary looked at her for a moment, then walked off, shaking his head. Harriet turned to the girls. "Walk with me," she said quietly. "Just keep walking." They followed her warily into the entrance hall. "That's right. Don't look round. Harriet Jones, MP Flydale North." She flashed a badge.

*****

The Doctor sat in the briefing room, scanning the papers he'd been given, trying to keep his mind off of Rose and the Ambassador.

He frowned when something strange caught his eye.

*****

Harriet looked at both girls as they stood in the hall. "This friend of yours, he's an expert, is that right?" she asked, her voice wavering. "He knows about aliens?"

Rose exchanged dubious looks with the Ambassador. "Why do you want to know?" she said warily, startled when Harriet started crying. She grabbed the woman trying to comfort her as she met the Ambassador's eyes.

*****

The general walked up in the front of the briefing room. "Now, ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention, please," he started. "As you can see from the summaries in front of you, the ship had one porcine occupant."

The Doctor stood and walked in the middle of the room. "Of course, the really interesting bit happened three days ago, see," he interrupted, "filed away under Any Other Business. The North Sea. A satellite detected a signal, a little blip of radiation, at one hundred fathoms, like there's something down there. You were just about to investigate and the next thing you know, this happens. Spaceships, pigs, massive diversion. From what?"

*****

Harriet led them into the Cabinet room and pulled what looked like a costume out of a closet. "They turned the body into a suit," she told them. "A disguise for the thing inside!" She started crying again and Rose hugged her.

"It's all right. I believe you. It's, it's alien," she told the woman, watching as the Ambassador picked up the body suit.

"They must have some serious technology behind this," she said, examining it closely.

"If we could find it," Rose said, "we could use it." She started searching the room. She opened a different cupboard and a man's body fell out. "Oh, my God!" Rose yelped, the Ambassador and Harriet running over. "Is that the-"

The secretary suddenly stormed in. "Harriet, for God's sake," he snapped. "This has gone beyond a joke. You cannot just wander-" He cut off abruptly, staring at the body. "Oh, my God. That's the Prime Minister!"

*****

The Doctor paced back and forth. "If aliens fake an alien crash and an alien pilot, what do they get?" he mused, then stopped as a thought occurred to him. He looked up in realization. "Us. They get us. It's not a diversion, it's a trap."

*****

The Ambassador pushed Rose behind her as a blonde woman, Margaret Blaine if she remembered correctly, walked in. "Oh!" Margaret smiled falsely, her voice far too sweet. "Has someone been naughty?"

*****

Jackie stood in her kitchen, stirring sugar into her mug of tea. "It was bigger on the inside," she recalled about the TARDIS, then shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. What do I know about spaceships?"

"That's what worries me," Strickland answered. "You see, this man is classified as trouble. Which means that anyone associated with him is trouble. And that's my job." He took off his cap and lifted his hands to undo the zip across his forehead. Blue light washed over the room. "Eliminating trouble."

*****

"That's impossible," the secretary stammered, facing Margaret. "He left this afternoon. The Prime Minister left Downing Street. He was driven away!"

Margaret smiled sweetly. "And who told you that, hmm? Me." She reached up to her hairline and started to unzip.

*****

"This is all about us," the Doctor explained quickly to the everyone gathered in the room. "Alien experts. The only people with knowledge how to fight them gathered together in one room." He frowned when Chairman Green farted behind him. "Excuse me, do you mind not farting while I'm saving the world?"

Green smirked. "Would you rather silent but deadly?" General Asquith removed his cap and unzipped his forehead. Green laughed as the room filled with blue light and an alien started to wriggle out of the General's skin suit.

*****

The three humans and one Time Lord stood frozen in horror as a giant green alien forced its way out of Margaret's skin. It lunged forward and grabbed the secretary by the throat, pushing him up the wall.

The Ambassador pushed Harriet behind her as she stepped forward, throwing her hand out toward the alien.

A wave of bright, crackling blue energy flew from her hand and hit the alien. It flew back, releasing the secretary, who ran to join the others.

"What the hell was that?" Rose gasped.

*****

Jackie came out of her kitchen to see that the Commissioner had turned into an alien. She dropped her mug and screamed, cowering down in the corner.

*****

The Doctor lowered his hand as the blue light faded. Where the General has been was a green alien, nearly eight feet tall with giant black eyes in baby faces. "We are the Slitheen," it said in a vibrating voice.

Green smiled darkly. "Thank you all for wearing your ID cards," he said, holding up a remote. "They'll help to identify the bodies." He pressed a button, and the ID cards sent out a wave of electricity over their wearers.

The Doctor groaned as he was forced to his knees by the shocking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a new appreciation for WritersBlock039 and her books. I've written one episode so far and I'm exhausted by it, I can't imagine how she's done several separate series. You guys should seriously check out her profile, her books are kind of what inspired me to write my own stories.
> 
> To be continued in World War Three.


	3. World War Three

The Doctor managed to pull his ID card off, much to the surprise of Green and the other Slitheen. He grinned. "Deadly to humans, maybe." He surged forward and pinned the card onto the collar of the Slitheen that had revealed itself. The Slitheen started screaming as the electricity washed over it, and through the link, over Green. The Doctor ran out into the hall, seeing dozens of armed officers. "Oi!" he called. "If you want aliens, you've got them. They're inside Downing Street. Come on!" He turned and ran back to the briefing room, the police following.

****

Margaret the alien stood up from the Ambassador's attack and started forward. The Ambassador, Rose, Harriet and Indra Ganesh backed up slowly, then stopped in shock. Out of nowhere, electricity had warped around Margaret, stopping the alien in its tracks.

The Ambassador shook out of her shock first. "Come on, move!" she ordered the humans. They ran out of the cabinet room.

****

Mickey walked back to the Tyler flat after the police and soldiers had cleared out. Opening the door, he walked in to see Jackie cowering as a big green... thing stood over her. "Jackie!" He looked around, then picked up a chair and slammed it down across the back of the thing. That did nothing but make it angry and Mickey stepped back as it turned on him. Out of nowhere, it started screaming as electricity spread from its collar to cover the entire body. Mickey took the opportunity to grab Jackie and pull out of the kitchen. Safely in the doorway, Mickey paused to pull out his phone and get a picture before running out of the flat with Jackie.

****

Green reached forward and grasped the ID card, pulling it off the collar. Immediately, the electricity stopped. The Slitheen grabbed the General's skin suit, starting to pull it on. "Reinstate my disguise," he told Green, who was helping. "Hurry up! Hurry! Hurry!"

****

Harriet suddenly stopped running. "No, wait," she said, the others stopping to turn to her. "They're still in there. The emergency protocols. We need them." The Ambassador and Rose started to run back with her. Ganesh shook his head.

"I'm getting out," he told them. "Good luck." He turned and kept running.

The Ambassador and Rose followed Harriet back to the Cabinet Room to find that Margaret had recovered and was angry. They turned tail and ran back the way they came. The alien chased them throughout the floor, smashing through doors as it came.

****

The Doctor led the police into the briefing room to find that the Slitheen had put his skin suit back on.

"Where have you been?" Green asked the police in an accusatory tone. "I called for help. I sounded the alarm. There was this lightening, this kind of, er, electricity, and they all collapsed."

The policemen checked the bodies. Sergeant Price looked up in horror.

"I think they're all dead," he said to the others.

"That's what I'm saying," Green answered, then pointed at the Doctor. "He did it! That man there."

The Doctor looked around as the police all turned to him. "I think you will find the Prime Minister is an alien in disguise," he tried. He looked at the officer to his left as everyone just stared at him. "That's never going to work, is it?"

"No."

He shrugged "Fair enough." He shoved past the officers and took off running. In the hall, he was met with a squad of armed officers. He turned and saw the officers come out of the briefing room to box him in.

"Under the jurisdiction of the Emergency Protocols," the General told the officers, "I authorise you to execute this man."

"Well, now, yes, you see, er, the thing is," the Doctor stalled, a nervous grin firmly in place, "if I was you, if I was going to execute someone by backing them against the wall, between you and me, little word of advice." The was a ding and the lift doors opened behind him. He grinned for real. "Don't stand them against the lift!" He took a step backwards into the lift and pressed the button to go up a floor. When the doors opened, he was face to face with another Slitheen. "Hello!" he greeted cheerfully. Behind the Slitheen, he noticed the Ambassador and Rose standing with another woman. He got the Slitheen's attention when it started to turn, allowing Rose, the Ambassador and the other to get past behind it. When they were safely out of his sight again, he waved at the Slitheen and closed the lift doors.

****

With the Doctor distracting Margaret, Rose, the Ambassador and Harriet were able to get past and into an ornate room.

"Hide!" Rose ordered Harriet, then joined the Ambassador behind the cabinet. Harriet hid behind a folding screen. They sat in silence for a minute before they heard Margaret come in.

"Oh, such fun," she said. "Little human children, where are you? Sweet little humeykins, come to me. Let me kiss you better. Kiss you with my big, green lips." The Ambassador grimaced at the imagery and Rose poked her head over the cabinet. Swing Margaret's back was turned, she grabbed the Ambassador's hand and dart from the cabinet to hide behind a curtain.

****

The Doctor stepped out of the lift onto the second floor. He wandered around for a moment before he heard the lift ding open again. He ran for the staircase as two naked Slitheen walked out.

"It does us good to hunt," one said. "Purifies the blood."

"We'll keep this floor quarantined as our last hunting ground before the final phase," the other replied. The Doctor listened as they left the hallway, then stood cautiously and followed, pulling a fire extinguisher offthe wall as he went.

****

The Ambassador looked at Rose when they heard two more aliens enter. "My brothers," Margaret greeted.

The Slitheen that had been Green answered. "Happy hunting?"

"It's wonderful," Margaret told them. "The more you prolong it, the more they stink."

"Sweat and fear," Asquith agreed.

"I can smell an old girl," Green said. "Stale bird and brittle bones."

"A young woman," Asquith said, "strong and powerful, a treat."

"And a ripe youngster," Margaret continued, "all hormones and adrenalin. Fresh enough to bend before she snaps." Rose screamed when Margaret yanked her curtain aside. The Ambassador yanked Rose back, stepping in front. She held up a fist, glowing blue, when Harriet jumped out from her hiding spot.

"No!" she shouted. "Take me first! Take me!" The Doctor suddenly burst into the room with a fire extinguisher. He sprayed the Slitheen with it.

"Out," he shouted to the girls. "With me!" Rose yanked on the curtain, making it fall and threw it over Margaret. She leaped over the curtain rod and ran for the Doctor, the Ambassador close behind. Harriet joined them a moment later. The Doctor looked at her strangely.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked. Harriet held up a badge.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North."

"Nice to meet you." He smiled at her and she returned it.

"Likewise."

The Doctor threw the fire extinguisher aside as it ran out and grabbed the Ambassador's hand, pulling her out of the room. Rose and Harriet followed.

"We need to head to the Cabinet Room," the Ambassador informed him.

"The Emergency Protocols are in there," Harriet added. "They give instructions for aliens."

The Doctor looked back at her. "Harriet Jones, I like you."

"And I like you too." They ran through the halls, Slitheen crashing through behind them.

****

The group entered the Cabinet room. The Doctor grabbed a decanter of port wine from a side table and stood in the doorway, the Ambassador on his right, Rose on his left. Harriet stood behind him. The Slitheen came running into the antechamber and the Doctor held up the port.

"One more move and my sonic device will triplicate the flammability of this alcohol," he bluffed, pressing his sonic screwdriver to the decanter. "Whoof, we all go up. So back off." The Slitheen took a step back. The Doctor nodded to himself, pleased. "Right then. Question time. Who exactly are the Slitheen?"

"They're aliens," Harriet answered.

"Yes. I got that, thanks," the Doctor rolled his eyes.

"Who are you," Green the Slitheen asked, "if not human?"

Harriet started. "Who's not human?"

Rose pointed to the Doctor and Ambassador. "They're not human."

Harriet gaped. "They're not human?"

The Doctor looked behind him. "Can I have a bit of hush?"

"Sorry," Harriet apologized.

"So, what's the plan?" the Ambassador asked the Slitheen, arms crossed.

Harriet spoke up behind them. "But he's got a Northern accent."

"Lots of planets have a north," Rose answered, sounding as if she was quoting.

"I said hush," the Doctor ordered. He turned back to face the Slitheen. "Come on. You've got a spaceship hidden in the North Sea. It's transmitting a signal. You've murdered your way to the top of government. What for, invasion?"

Asquith the Slitheen scoffed. "Why would we invade this God-forsaken rock?"

"Then something's brought the Slitheen race here. What is it?" The Slitheen chortled.

"The Slitheen race?" Asquith said incredulously.

"Slitheen is not our species," Green informed. "Slitheen is our surname. Jocrassa Fel Fotch Pasameer-Day-Slitheen at your service."

"You're a family," the Ambassador realized.

"A family business," Jocrassa agreed.

"Then you're out to make a profit," the Doctor said. "How can you do that on a God-forsaken rock?"

Asquith looked at the decanter, then back at them. "Ah, excuse me? Your device will do what? Triplicate the flammability?"

The Doctor looked up sheepishly. "Is that what I said?" The Ambassador facepalmed, shaking her head.

"Dollophead," she muttered quietly.

"You're making it up," Asquith accused.

"Ah, well!" the Doctor said, lowering his screwdriver. "Nice try. Ambassador, have a drink." The Ambassador took the decanter and promptly passed it behind her to Harriet.

"I think you're gonna need it," she said. Harriet shook her head.

"You pass it to the left first."

"Sorry," the Ambassador passed it to her left.

Rose took it. "Thanks."

Asquith laughed evilly. "Now we can end this hunt with a slaughter."

Rose looked at the two Time Lords. "Don't you think we should run?"

"Fascinating history, Downing Street," the Doctor started. "Two thousand years ago, this was marsh land. 1730, it was occupied by a Mister Chicken. He was a nice man."

The Ambassador took over. "In 1796, this was the Cabinet Room. If the Cabinet is in session and in danger, these are the four safest walls in the whole of Great Britain."

"End of lesson," the Doctor finished cheerfully. The Doctor lifted a small panel by the door and pressed a button. Metal shutters slid from the door and window frames, crashing shut in the Slitheen's faces. "Installed in 1991. Three inches of steel lining every single wall. They'll never get in."

Rose gave him a look. "And how do we get out?"

The Doctor winced. "Ah."

****

Jackie took the cup of tea Mickey handed her and looked at it in dismay. "Got anything stronger?"

Mickey shook his head. "No chance. I've seen you when you've had a few. This ain't time for a conga."

Jackie looked at him. "We've got to tell someone."

"Who do we trust?" Mickey asked. "For all we know, they've all got big bog monsters inside of them." He started towards his living room. "I mean, this is what he does, Jacks, that Doctor bloke. Everywhere he goes, death and destruction, and he's got Rose in the middle of it."

"Has he got a great big green thing inside him, then?" Jackie asked, following him.

Mickey stopped for a second, thinking. "I wouldn't put it past him. But like it or not, he's the only person who knows how to fight these things."

"I thought I was going to die," Jackie said, crying. Mickey gave her an awkward hug.

"Come on, yeah? If anyone's going to cry, it's going to be me," he comforted. "Now, you're safe in my flat, Jacks. No one's going To look for you here, especially since you hate me so much."

Jackie looked at him. "You saved my life. God, that's embarrassing."

Mickey snorted his response. "You're telling me."

"He wanted me dead," Jackie said. "And he's still out there, Mickey. That policeman. That thing."

Sure enough, Commissioner Strickland, back in his skin suit, was outside Powell Estate. "Right, you head off," he ordered his officers. "Inform Control I have got one or two things that still need doing. I haven't quite finished with Mrs Tyler yet."

****

The Time Lords, Rose and Harriet

stood behind the metal shutters. Rose suddenly turned to the Ambassador. "Since we're not running for our lives anymore," she started, "can you tell me what the glowy blue thing is?"

The Doctor eyed the Ambassador. "Glowy blue thing?" he asked, just a bit suspiciously.

The Ambassador ignored him and answered Rose. "It's called Artron Energy, and the training I went through back home allows me to harness it in a weaponized form." Rose looked more confused than before, but she let it go.

"Right, what have we got?" the Doctor changed the subject. "Any terminals, anything?"

"No," Rose said, looking around. "This place is antique." She spun to face the Time Lords. "What I don't get is, when they killed the Prime Minister, why didn't they use him as a disguise?"

"He's too slim," the Doctor said. "They're big old beasts. They need to fit inside big humans."

"But the Slitheen are about eight feet," Rose recalled. "How do they fit inside?"

"That's why they have those collars," the Ambassador explained. "Compression field. Literally shrinks them down."

"That's why there's all that gas," the Doctor continued. "It's a big exchange."

Rose looked at herself, smirking a bit. "Wish I had a compression field. I could fit a size smaller."

Harriet looked at her sharply. "Excuse me, people are dead! This is not the time for making jokes."

"Sorry," Rose apologized. She gestured to where the Doctor was scanning things with his screwdriver. "You get used to this stuff when you're friends with him."

Harriet scoffed. "Well, that's a strange friendship."

"Harriet Jones," the Doctor mused. "I've heard that name before. Harriet Jones. You're not famous for anything, are you?"

Harriet blushed. "Oh, hardly."

"Rings a bell," he muttered. "Harriet Jones?"

"Lifelong backbencher I'm afraid, and a fat lot of use I'm being now," Harriet started dryly. "The Protocols are redundant. They list the people who could help and they're all dead downstairs."

"Hasn't it got, like, defence codes and things?" Rose asked. "Couldn't we just launch a nuclear bomb at them?" The Ambassador snorted from her seat next to Harriet, who stared at Rose in astonishment.

"You're a very violent young woman," she informed her.

"I'm serious," Rose continued. "We could."

Harriet shook her head, looking down at the red briefcase. "Well, there's nothing like that in here. Nuclear strikes do need a release code, yes, but it's kept secret by the United Nations."

"Say that again," the Doctor said suddenly, turning to join them at the table.

Harriet blinked at him. "What, about the codes?"

"Anything. All of it."

"Well, the British Isles can't gain access to atomic weapons without a Special Resolution from the UN."

"Like that's ever stopped them," Rose snorted to the Ambassador. Harriet heard and nodded her agreement.

"Exactly, given our past record," she held up her hands. "And I voted against that, thank you very much. The codes have been taken out of the government's hands and given to the UN. Is it important?"

"Everything's important," the Doctor told her seriously.

"If we only knew what the Slitheen wanted. Listen to me. I'm saying Slitheen as if it's normal." The Ambassador patted her arm sympathetically.

"What do they want, though?" Rose wondered.

The Ambassador tilted her head. "Well, they're just one family, so it's not an invasion. They don't want Slitheen World. They're out to make money. That means they want to use something. Something here on Earth. Some kind of asset."

"Like what, gold? Oil? Water?" Harriet listed. The Doctor gave her an appraising look.

"You're very good at this."

"Thank you."

"Harriet Jones," the Doctor mused aloud, turning to the Ambassador. "Why do I know that name?" She shrugged. She'd been trying to place the whole time.

A phone beeped and Rose started, pulling hers out to check it. "Oh, that's me."

"But we're sealed off," Harriet said. "How did you get a signal?"

Rose gestured to the Doctor. "He zapped it. Super phone."

"Then we can phone for help," Harriet said hopefully. "You must have contacts."

"Dead downstairs, yeah."

"It's Mickey," Rose said slowly, staring at something on the screen.

"Oh, tell your stupid boyfriend we're busy," the Doctor scoffed. The Ambassador smacked his arm without looking away from Rose.

"Be nice," she scolded.

"Yeah," Rose agreed. "he's not so stupid after all." She turned her phone to show them the picture Mickey sent, the face of a Slitheen. She walked away to a corner and quickly dialed Mickey's number. After a minute she walked back over.

"No, no, no, no, no," the Ambassador heard from the phone. "Not just alien, but like, proper alien. All stinking, and wet, and disgusting. And more to the point, it wanted to kill us!"

Jackie's voice came through. "I could've died!"

Rose sighed. "Is she all right, though? Don't put her on, just tell me." The Ambassador snorted. She knew if Jackie got on that phone, Rose would be there for hours. She looked up when Rose squeaked indignantly, to see the Doctor taking Rose's phone from her hands.

"Is that Ricky?" he asked. "Don't talk, just shut up and go to your computer."

"It's Mickey, and why should I?"

The Doctor grimaced. "Mickey the Idiot, I might just choke before I finish this sentence, but, er, I need you."

Five minutes saw Mickey hacking into the UNIT website. "It says password," Mickey said. The Doctor plugged the phone into the conference speaker on table.

"Say it again," he ordered.

Mickey's voice rang through the speaker. "It's asking for the password."

"Buffalo," was the Doctor's immediate answer. "Two Fs, one L."

"So, what's that website?" Jackie asked.

"All the secret information known to mankind," Mickey said. "See, they've known about aliens for years.They just kept us in the dark."

The Doctor scoffed. "Mickey, you were born in the dark." He winced when the Ambassador's hand met the back of his head.

Rose sighed. "Oh, leave him alone."

"Thank you," Mickey said. "Password again."

"Just repeat it every time," the Doctor answered, then turned away to pace. "Big Ben - why did the Slitheen go and hit Big Ben?"

Harriet answered. "You said to gather the experts, to kill them."

"That lot would've gathered for a weather balloon," the Doctor waved away. "You don't need to crash land in the middle of London."

"The Slitheen are hiding," Rose said slowly, "but then they put the entire planet on red alert! What would they do that for?"

Jackie's voice was sarcastic. "Oh, listen to her."

Rose scowled at the phone. "At least I'm trying."

"Well, I've got a question, if you don't mind," Jackie said. "Since that man walked into our lives, I have been attacked in the streets. I have had creatures from the pits of hell in my own living room, and my daughter disappear off the face of the Earth."

Rose rolled her eyes. "I told you what happened."

"I'm talking to him," Jackie said flatly. "'Cos I've seen this life of yours, Doctor. And maybe you get off on it, and maybe you think it's all clever and smart, but you tell me.Just answer me this. Is my daughter safe?" The Doctor didn't answer.

"I'm fine," Rose said.

Jackie ignored her. "Is she safe? Will she always be safe? Can you promise me that?" The Ambassador watched the Doctor as Jackie spoke, a little worried when he was silent. "Well, what's the answer?"

Mickey broke the awkward, tense silence. "We're in."

Just like a switch had flipped, the Doctor was a flurry of motion again. "Now then, on the left at the top, there's a tab, an icon. Little concentric circles. Click on that."

A repeating signal sounded through speaker. Mickey's voice was confused. "What is it?"

"The Slitheen have got a spaceship in the North Sea and it's transmitting that signal," the Doctor answered. "Now hush, let me work out what it's saying."

Jackie huffed. "He'll have to answer me one day."

"Hush!" Mickey shushed her.

"It's some sort of message," the Doctor said after listening a moment.

"What's it say?" Rose asked.

The Doctor shook his head. "Don't know. It's on a loop, keeps repeating." He scowled when a doorbell sounded on Mickey's end. "Hush!"

"That's not me," Mickey rebutted. "Go and see who that is."

Jackie scoffed. "It's three o'clock in the morning."

"Well, go and tell them that."

"It's beaming out into space," the Doctor said, ignoring them. "Who's it for?"

****

Jackie walked over to Mickey's front door, scowling as the bell kept ringing. "All right!" she shouted, opening the door.

Commissioner Strickland stood there. "Mrs Tyler."

Jackie slammed the door shut again and ran back to Mickey. "It's him! It's the thing, it's the Slipeen!"

Mickey met her eyes in horror. "They've found us."

****

"Mickey, I need that signal," the Doctor reminded him. Rose scowled at him.

"Never mind the signal," she yelled, "get out! Mum, just get out! Get out!"

"We can't," said Mickey's voice. "It's by the front door." They heard a zipping sound and then Mickey's voice was back, filled with fear. "Oh, my God, it's unmasking. It's going to kill us."

Harriet looked to the Time Lords. "There's got to be some way of stopping them!" she cried, gesturing to the Doctor. "You're supposed to be the expert, think of something!"

"I'm trying!"

****

Mickey held up his baseball bat. "I'll take it on, Jackie. You just run. Don't look back. Just run."

****

The Ambassador cringed as the sounds of splintering wood came through the speaker.

Rose looked at the Doctor earnestly. "That's my mother."

The Doctor rubbed his hands together. "Right," he said. "If we're going to find their weakness, we need to find out where they're from. Which planet. So, judging by their basic shape, that narrows it down to five thousand planets within travelling distance. What else do we know about them? Information!"

"They're green," Rose supplied.

The Doctor nodded. "Yep, narrows it down."

"Good sense of smell."

"Narrows it down."

"They can smell adrenalin."

"Narrows it down."

"The pig technology," Harriet piped up.

"Narrows it down."

"The spaceship in the Thames, slipstream engine," the Ambassador remembered.

"Narrows it down."

Mickey's voice interrupted. "It's getting in!"

"They hunt like it's a ritual," Rose offered.

"Narrows it down."

Harriet held up a hand. "Wait a minute. Did you notice? When they fart, if you'll pardon the word, it doesn't just smell like a fart, if you'll pardon the word, it's something else. What is it? It's more like, er..."

"Bad breath!" Rose finished.

"That's it!"

The Doctor grinned. "Calcium decay! Now, that narrows it down!"

"We're getting there, Mum!" Rose called.

"Too late!" Mickey replied.

"Calcium phosphate," the Doctor muttered to himself. "Organic calcium. Living calcium. Creatures made out of living calcium. What else? What else?"

"Hyphenated surname," the Ambassador said, realization dawning in her eyes.

"Yes!" the Doctor agreed. "That narrows it down to one planet." The Ambassador said it with him. "Raxacoricofallapatorius!"

"Great!" Mickey said sarcastically. "We can write them a letter!"

"Get into the kitchen!" the Doctor ordered. There was a tense moment when a crashing sound came through the speaker.

Jackie's voice came through a minute later. "My God, it's going to rip us apart!"

"Calcium," the Ambassador said, "weakened by the compression field. We need acetic acid. Vinegar!"

"Just like Hannibal!" Harriet exclaimed.

"Just like Hannibal," the Doctor agreed. "Mickey, have you got any vinegar?"

"How should I know"

"It's your kitchen," the Ambassador said incredulously.

Rose answered for him. "Cupboard by the sink, middle shelf."

"Oh, give it here," Jackie said. "What do you need?"

"Anything with vinegar!" the Ambassador told her.

Jackie started listing things. "Gherkins. Yeah, pickled onions. Pickled eggs."

The Doctor gave Rose a mildly disgusted look. "And you kiss this man?"

****

The Slitheen finally broke through the kitchen door. Jackie tossed the contents of the jug over it. It stopped in its tracks, farted, then exploded, covering the kitchen and everyone in it in green entrails. 

Jackie gagged.

****

"Hannibal?" Rose asked when all was silent, looking to Harriet.

Harriet shrugged. "Hannibal crossed the Alps by dissolving boulders with vinegar."

"Oh," Rose held up a glass of port wine. "Well, there you go then." They all toasted.

****

Mickey and Jackie sat in his living room, covered in slowly drying green goo, watching the news as Chairman Green and General Asquith came onscreen.

" _Ladies and gentlemen_ ," Green greeted, " _nations of the world, humankind. The greatest experts in extra-terrestrial events came here tonight. They gathered in the common cause, but the news I bring you now is grave indeed._ " He paused, a sad look coming over his face. " _The experts are dead, murdered right in front of me by alien hands. Peoples of the Earth, heed my words. These visitors do not come in peace._ "

Mickey looked at the phone he still held, then held out to the TV. "Listen to this."

Green was still talking. " _Our inspectors have searched the sky above our heads and they have found massive weapons of destruction capable of being deployed within forty five seconds._ "

****

The Doctor stared at the speaker. "What?"

" _Our technicians can baffle the alien probes, but not for long. We are facing extinction, unless we strike first. The United Kingdom stands directly beneath the belly of the mother ship. I beg of the United Nations, pass an emergency resolution. Give us the access codes. A nuclear strike at the heart of the beast is our only chance of survival because from this moment on it is my solemn duty to inform you planet Earth is at war._ "

The Doctor looked up at the three women when Green stopped talking. "He's making it up. There's no weapons up there, there's no threat. He just invented it."

"Do you think they'll believe him?" Harriet asked.

"They did last time," Rose pointed out.

"That's why the Slitheen went for spectacle," the Doctor explained. "They want the whole world panicking, because you lot, you get scared, you lash out."

"They release the defence code," Rose realized slowly.

The Doctor nodded grimly. "And the Slitheen go nuclear."

"But why?" Harriet asked, looking confused. The Doctor walked over to the doorway and opened the shutters. The Slitheen were still stood there.

"You get the codes, release the missiles, but not into space because there's nothing there," the Doctor said to them. "You attack every other country on Earth. They retaliate, fight back. World War Three. Whole planet gets nuked."

Margaret smiled. "And we can sit through it safe in our spaceship waiting in the Thames. Not crashed, just parked. Only two minutes away."

Harriet gaped. "But you'll destroy the planet, this beautiful place. What for?"

"Profit," the Ambassador sneered. "That's what the signal is beaming into space. An advertisement, for a radioactive wasteland of Earth."

Margaret was unfazed by the dark looks in the Time Lords' eyes. "The sale of the century," she said gleefully. "We reduce the Earth to molten slag, then sell it piece by piece. Radioactive chucks, capable of powering every cut-price star liner and budget cargo ship. There's a recession out there, Doctor, Ambassador. People are buying cheap. This rock becomes raw fuel."

"At the cost of five billion lives," the Doctor snarled.

Margaret smirked. "Bargain."

"I give you a choice," the Doctor told her. "Leave this planet or I'll stop you."

"What, you?" Margaret laughed. "Trapped in your box?"

"Yes. Me," the Doctor glared, hitting the button to close the shutters. He didn't see Margaret's laughing face fall into worry.

****

The Ambassador sat up with the Doctor long after Harriet and Rose had fallen asleep. She fiddled with the bracelet she wore, the silence in the room near suffocating. She glanced up at the Doctor when he cleared his throat.

"You never answered my question," he said lightly. "How did you survive?"

She met his eyes steadily. "I could ask you the same thing." She sighed when his gaze never wavered from hers. "Halfway through the War, the Council called me away from the front lines."

The Doctor's brow furrowed. "You were on the front lines?"

She nodded. "A lot of Sentries were. A lot of Sentries died there," she swallowed, looking down. "Anyway, I was called away and the Council said they were sending me off world. They sent me to different planets, to restore and keep faith in the Time Lords." She smiled wryly at the Doctor. "It didn't go well."

He was staring at her. "You weren't on Gallifrey when it burned."

She shook her head. "No."

"How did you end up on Earth?"

"When the news came through that Gallifrey had fallen," the Ambassador said, "any and all protection I'd been granted for fear of the Council's retribution vanished. I wasn't exactly popular, so I ran. Didn't have coordinates. It was sheer luck I landed here." The Doctor just stared, a pained look in his eyes. The Ambassador leaned back in her chair.

"Your turn," she said. "How did you survive?"

He didn't answer for a long moment, and when he did, the Ambassador's hearts constricted at the amount of raw pain filling his voice. "I made it happen." Her face must have shown her confusion, because he swallowed and looked away. "I burned Gallifrey."

Her mouth fell open. " _You_ did this?" she cried. She glanced over as Rose stirred in her sleep, then leaned closer to the Doctor, hissing quietly. "You killed everyone! After everything you said to me, you went and killed them all!"

He met her eyes and she jerked back when she saw tears in his eyes. "You weren't there!" he said quietly. "The War, it changed them! I had to end it, for the sake of the universe!" He looked away. "And I wish there'd been a better way. But there wasn't."

The Ambassador leaned her elbows on the table, head in her hands. "Yeah," she whispered. "I get it." She pushed away from the table and stood. "I'm going to try and get some sleep," she said awkwardly. "You should too."

She didn't sleep.

****

Rose picked up on the tension between the two Time Lords almost as soon as she woke up. They stood on opposite sides of the room, avoiding each other as much as possible. She looked between them. "What happened?" she asked. The Doctor just looked at her for a moment, then turned away. She turned to the Ambassador, who just shook her head. Huffing, Rose sat down next to Harriet and waited.

The speaker crackled with Jackie's voice a few hours later. "All right, Doctor. I'm not saying I trust you, but there must be something you can do."

Harriet hummed thoughtfully. "If we could ferment the port, we could make acetic acid."

"Mickey, any luck?" Rose asked.

Mickey sighed. "There's loads of emergency numbers. They're all on voicemail."

"Voicemail dooms us all," Harriet muttered.

"If we could just get out of here," Rose mumbled, getting up and examining the metal shutters.

The Doctor looked up, his face solemn. "There's a way out."

Rose whipped around. "What?"

The Doctor swallowed. "There's always been a way out."

"Then why don't we use it?" Rose said.

The Doctor answered to the speaker. "Because I can't guarantee your daughter will be safe."

Jackie's voice was cold. "Don't you dare. Whatever it is, don't you dare."

"That's the thing. If I don't dare, everyone dies." He met the Ambassador's eyes as he said this. Rise frowned as something she couldn't decipher passed between them, then the Ambassador nodded.

Rose decided their drama wasn't important right now. "Do it," she told the Doctor decisively.

The Doctor gawked at her. "You don't even know what it is. You'd just let me?"

Rose nodded, confident in him. "Yeah."

"Please, Doctor," Jackie pleaded. "Please. She's my daughter. She's just a kid."

"Do you think I don't know that?" he snapped. "Because this is my life, Jackie. It's not fun, it's not smart, it's just standing up and making a decision because nobody else will."

"Then what're you waiting for?" Rose asked. He looked her in the eye.

"I could save the world but lose you." Rose faltered a bit.

"Except it's not your decision, Doctor," Harriet suddenly said. "It's mine."

"And who the hell are you?" Jackie asked, her voice a bit scathing.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North," Harriet replied, and the Ambassador was almost surprised when she didn't automatically hold up a badge. "The only elected representative in this room, chosen by the people for the people. And on behalf of the people," she looked at the Time Lords, "I command you. Do it."

The Doctor nodded, then gave Mickey instructions to get back online. Rose watched him.

"How do we get out?" she asked.

"We don't," the Ambassador told her, seeming to know the Doctor's plan. "We stay here."

The Doctor pulled the Emergency Protocols from the red briefcase, staring down at them. "Use the buffalo password," he said to Mickey. "It overrides everything."

****

Jackie sat down next to Mickey. "What're you doing?"

Mickey grinned at her. "Hacking into the Royal Navy." He turned back to hiscomputer, speaking into the phone. "We're in. Here it is. HMS Taurean, Trafalgar Class submarine, ten miles off the coast of Plymouth."

"Right," the Doctor said, "we need to select a missile."

Mickey looked at his options. "We can't go nuclear. We don't have the defence codes."

****

The Ambassador shook her head. "We don't need nuclear. All we need is an ordinary missile."

"What's the first category?" the Doctor asked.

"Sub Harpoon," Mickey said after a minute. "UGM-A4A."

The Doctor nodded. "That's the one. Select."

****

Jackie watched as Mickey selected the missile. "I could stop you," she told him.

He just looked at her. "Do it, then."

The Doctor's voice came through the phone. "You ready for this?"

Mickey stared at Jackie for a a moment as she got up and walked away. He nodded. "Yeah."

****

The Doctor grimaced. "Mickey the idiot, the world is in your hands." He took a breath. "Fire."

The mouse click seemed to ring through the room. There was a beat, then Jackie spoke. "Oh, my God."

Harriet looked around the room. "How solid are these?" she asked, gesturing to the walls of metal.

"Not solid enough," the Doctor frowned. "Built for short range attack, nothing this big."

Rose looked behind her, then nodded. "All right, now I'm making the decision," she announced. "I'm not going to die. We're going to ride this one out. It's like what they say about earthquakes. You can survive them by standing under a doorframe." She walked over to the cupboard. "Now, this cupboard's small so it's strong. Come and help me. Come on." Both Harriet and the Ambassador helped her drag boxes out of the cupboard.

"It's on radar." Mickey announced. The Doctor leaned over the speaker to hear better. "Counter defence five five six."

"Stop them intercepting it," the Doctor ordered.

"I'm doing it now."

"Good boy."

"Five five six neutralised."

The Doctor unplugged Rose's phone as the women finished clearing out the cupboard. The group crouched down inside and Rose pulled the door shut.

Harriet looked at them all. "Here we go. Nice knowing you three," she said, gave a cry. "Hannibal!"

The entire cupboard shook violently when the missile hit. The Ambassador was tossed around as they rolled several times and she winced when Rose's foot came into contact with her stomach. She could barely hear Rose screaming over the roar of the explosion.

As suddenly as it started, it stopped. They came to a standstill, and the Doctor, who'd ended up closest to the door, gently pushed on it. It fell with a thud and they climbed out to see 10 Downing Street completely decimated.

Harriet patted the cupboard doorframe. "Made in Britain," she quipped.

The police sergeant came running up to them. "Oh, my God. Are you all right?"

"Harriet Jones. MP, Flydale North," Harriet introduced, flashing her badge. "I want you to contact the UN immediately. Tell the ambassadors the crisis is over. They can step down." The sergeant stared at her. "Go on," she shooed, "tell the news."

"Yes, ma'am," he finally got out, running back the way he came.

Harriet looked around and blew out a breath. "Someone's got a hell of a job sorting this lot out," she said, then blanched. "Oh, Lord. We haven't even got a Prime Minister."

"Maybe you should have a go," the Doctor told her.

Harriet scoffed. "Me? Huh. I'm only a back-bencher."

Rose smiled at her. "I'd vote for you."

"Now, don't be silly," Harriet said, shaking her head. "Look, I'd better go and see if I can help." She waved at them, starting to make her over the rubble. "Hang on! We're safe! The Earth is safe! Sergeant!"

"I knew I knew her name," the Ambassador suddenly grinned. "Harriet Jones, future Prime Minister."

The Doctor's face suddenly cleared in recognition. "Elected for three successive terms," he told Rose. "The architect of Britain's Golden Age." They turned to watch Harriet run up to the reporters.

"The crisis has passed!" she told them. "Ladies and gentlemen, I have something to say to you all here today! Mankind stands tall, proud and undefeated. God bless the human race."

The two Time Lords and Rose shared a grin before walking off.

****

The moment they got back to the Tyler flat, Rose was engulfed in a hug from her mum. The Doctor made a face and walked quickly back to the TARDIS as Jackie moved from Rose to the Ambassador.

An hour later, Jackie sat watching Harriet on the news. " _Mankind stands tall, proud..._ "

Jackie scoffed at the tv, looking behind her at where Rose and the Ambassador sat. "Harriet Jones. Who does she think she is? Look at her, taking all the credit. Should be you on there. My daughter and neighbor saved the world!"

"I think the Doctor helped a bit," Rose reminded.

"All right, then," Jackie allowed. "Him too. You should be given knighthoods."

Rose shook her head. "That's not the way he does things," she told her mum. "No fuss. He just moves on. He's not that bad if you gave him a chance."

"He's good in a crisis, I'll give him that."

Rose grinned, tongue in teeth. "Oh, now the world has changed. You're saying nice things about him."

Jackie smiled at her daughter. "Well, I reckon I've got no choice," she said. "There's no getting rid of him since you're infatuated."

"I'm not infatuated," Rose protested.

Jackie changed the subject. "What does he eat?"

"How do you mean?" Rose asked, sharing a look with the Ambassador.

"I was going to do shepherds pie," Jackie replied, looking between them. "All of us. A proper sit down, 'cos I'm ready to listen. I wanna learn about you and him and that life you lead." Rose looked at her mum, a little shocked. Jackie sniffed. "Only, I don't know, he's an alien. For all I know, he eats grass and safety pins and things." Rose snorted at the look on the Ambassador's face.

"He'll have shepherds pie," the Ambassador assured Jackie. Then she grinned. "You're going to cook for him?"

Jackie scowled. "What's wrong with that?"

"He's finally met his match," Rose snickered to the Ambassador.

"You're not too old for a slap, you know," Jackie warned, getting up to go into the kitchen. The Ambassador slipped out of the flat. "You can go and visit your Gran tomorrow. You'd better learn some French." Rose stopped paying attention when her phone rang. "I told her you were in France. I said you were au-pairing."

Rose looked down at her phone, face scrunching in confusion when the caller ID said the TARDIS was calling. She answered warily. "Hello?"

The Doctor's voice answered. "Right, I'll be a couple of hours, then we can go."

"You've got a phone?" Rose asked incredulously.

"You think I can travel through space and time and I haven't got a phone?" the Doctor snarked. "Like I said, couple of hours. I've just got to send out this dispersal." Rose listened as he tapped buttons. "There you go. That's cancelling out the Slitheen's advert in case any bargain hunters turn up."

Rose looked round to her mum in the kitchen. "Er, my mother's cooking," she told the Doctor.

"Good," he joked. "Put her on a slow heat and let her simmer."

"She's cooking tea," Rose said. "For us."

"I don't do that," the Doctor said, his voice flat.

"She wants to get to know you," Rose tried. She could almost hear him shake his head.

"Tough," was the answer. "I've got better things to do."

"It's just tea."

"Not to me it isn't."

"She's my mother," Rose pointed out.

"Well, she's not mine," he said harshly.

Rose winced. "That's not fair."

The Doctor sighed. "Well, you can stay there if you want," his voice took on an excited tone, "but right now there's this plasma storm brewing in the Horsehead Nebula. Fires are burning ten million miles wide." Rose started to grin widely. "I could fly the Tardis right into the heart of it then ride the shock wave all the way out. Hurtle right across the sky and end up," he paused, "anywhere. Your choice." He hung up.

Rose lowered her phone, smiling excitedly. She got up and ran to her room to pack.

****

"Rose, I was thinking," Jackie was saying as she walked into Rose's room. "I've got that bottle of Amaretto from New Year's Eve. Does he drink?" She looked up. Rose had a duffel bag on her bed, packing it full of stuff. Jackie stopped as Rose glanced up at her. "I was wondering whether he drinks or not."

Rose nodded, pulling the drawstrings tight. "Yeah, he does."

Jackie swallowed. "Don't go, sweetheart," she begged, knowing it wouldn't stop her. "Please don't go."

****

Mickey sat on a rubbish bin reading the newspaper while a young boy cleaned his graffiti off the TARDIS. He looked up when the Doctor came out.

"Good lad," he said to the kid. "Graffiti that again and I'll have you. Now, beat it."

Mickey watched him run off. "I just went down the shop," he said, turning to where the Ambassador had joined the Doctor, "and I was thinking, you know, like the whole world's changed. Aliens and spaceships all in public. And here it is." He held up the paper, showing them the headline reading Alien Hoax. "How could they do that? They saw it."

"They're just not ready," the Ambassador said. She opened her mouth to say more, but the Doctor cut her off.

"You're happy to believe in something that's invisible," he insulted, "but if it's staring you in the face, nope, can't see it. There's a scientific explanation for that. You're thick." He grunted when the Ambassador's elbow met his ribs.

Mickey raised an eyebrow at them. "We're just idiots."

"Well, not all of you," the Doctor allowed.

"Yeah?"

"Present for you, Mickey," the Doctor said, holding out a CD. Mickey took it warily. "That's a virus. Put it online. It'll destroy every mention of me. I'll cease to exist."

Mickey stared down at it. "What do you want to do that for?"

"Because you're right," the Doctor told him. "I am dangerous. I don't want anybody following me."

Mickey looked over at where Jackie was following Rose out of the flat. "How can you say that and then take her with you?"

"You could look after her," the Doctor offered. "Come with us."

"I can't," Mickey shook his head. "This life of yours, it's just too much. I couldn't do it." He glared at them suddenly. "Don't tell her I said that."

"I'll get a proper job," Jackie was saying as she and Rose walked up to the TARDIS. "I'll work weekends. I'll pass my test, and if Jim comes round again, I'll say no. I really will."

Rose turned to her mum, laughing a bit. "I'm not leaving because of you," she assured her. "I'm travelling, that's all, and then I'll come back."

"But it's not safe," Jackie protested.

Rose sighed. "Mum, if you saw it out there you'd never stay home." She stepped up to the TARDIS doors.

"Got enough stuff?" the Doctor asked, eyeing her large duffel bag.

"Last time I stepped in there," Rose told him, smiling, "it was spur of the moment. Now I'm signing up. You're stuck with me." She handed the bag to the Doctor as he went inside and walked over to Mickey. "Come with us," she said. "There's plenty of room."

The Doctor came back out and met Mickey's eyes over Rose's head. "No chance," he told her. "He's a liability, I'm not having him on board." Mickey nodded at the Doctor in thanks.

Rose turned to the Doctor. "We'd be dead without him."

"My decision is final."

Rose sighed, turning back to Mickey apologetically. "Sorry." She kissed him.

"Good luck, yeah," Mickey said as he pulled away. Rose smiled.

"You still can't promise me," Jackie suddenly said to the Doctor. "What if she gets lost? What if something happens to you, Doctor, and she's left all alone standing on some moon a million light years away. How long do I wait then?"

Rose walked over and set her hands on her mum's shoulders. "Mum, you're forgetting. It's a time machine. I could go travelling around suns and planets and all the way out to the edge of the universe, and by the time I get back, yeah, ten seconds would have passed."

The Ambassador snorted quietly, walking back into the TARDIS. "Not with his driving," she muttered.

"Just ten seconds," Rose finished, not hearing the Ambassador's remark. "So stop worrying. See you in ten seconds' time, yeah?" She hugged Jackie tight, then ran into the TARDIS after the Doctor. Mickey gave a little wave as he and Jackie watched the TARDIS dematerialize. The second it was gone, Jackie looked at her watch, counting.

"Ten seconds," she said softly. She walked slowly back to the flat, leaving Mickey on the rubbish bin, reading the newspaper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's World War Three done! The next chapter will be a short interlude before the trio gets to Utah. 
> 
> What do you think of the Ambassador so far? Let me know in the comments, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
> 
> Thanks for reading, and until next time!


End file.
